on our broadcast tonight, crisis at sea. that burning oil rig off the louisiana coast, it's gone. tonight the workers feared lost and what can this mean for the environment? harsh words for wall street. what does president obama's speech to them today mean to the rest of us? what really happened? an american who died a heroic death we didn't know about until now. fire and ice. tonight, is iceland going to be like this for a while? what makes it a unique and volatile place. free lunch, an earth day look at the alternative to the internal combustion engine. and the news from washington that bo has done it again.

"nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. it was a spectacular explosion, a massive fire and genuine human tragedy involving 11 missing men. tonight, the oil platform that was on fire off the coast of louisiana is gone. it sank today into the waters of the gulf of mexico, and the first thing a lot of people thought about was all that oil. this can't be good for the environment. it's where we start off tonight with nbc's ron mott. ron, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. we are at the naval air station just outside new orleans which are headquarters for the coast guard operation. they are looking at this as a search and rescue mission, but they are acknowledging they are reaching the tail end of the search for survivors. this morning, the fire that's raged out of control since tuesday night's explosion

claimed what was left of the deepwater horizon in yet another explosion as the suspended rig which isn't anchored to the ocean floor sank beneath the surface of the gulf. the air search for 11 missing oil rig workers resumed at daybreak, with choppers rejoining a pair of coast guard cutters that stayed on the water oversight looking for any signs of life. the search covered 3,000 square miles. >> based upon reports from our crew members we met as they came in last night, at the time of the incident, they believe they may have been onboard the rig and not able to evacuate. we haven't confirmed that yet and search and rescue efforts are continuing. >> reporter: the first coast guard crew to arrive at the drilling platform described an apocalyptic scene. >> the rig fully engulfed, flames 350 feet in the air and life boats on fire. it was surreal. something i've never seen before. >> reporter: of the 126 crew onboard, 115 made it to rescue vessels.

>> we know that 115 people are safe and that's a tribute to the efforts of the rescue services and some of the crew members on board the rig. >> reporter: now, officials will turn their attention to any environmental impacts, whether a well 18,000 feet below the surface is still leaking crude, and what happened to a tank aboard the rig holding 700,000 gallons of diesel. >> right now we do not have evidence there is any crude emanating from the subsurface well head. what we have on the surface is residual from the explosion, fire and things that we are going on yesterday. >> reporter: a company official said the exact cause of the initial blast remains under investigation, adding it appears to be a blowout, where oil or gas pressure overwhelms the drilling equipment. tonight the president is being briefed at the white house on the situation in the gulf, this as the search for the 11 missing men continue, and the

possibility of all that oil that may be leaking under the surface of the water, brian. >> ron mott from bell chase, louisiana tonight. thanks. here in new york today, president obama was pitching financial reform in the shadow of wall street itself. instead of slamming the big banks, the speech was more of a call to arms, urging everybody to get on board. our white house correspondent savannah guthrie with us from there with more. savannah, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. with his wall street reform package at a crucial stage, a vote expected that is key on monday, the president went to the heart of the financial system in this country, new york city to close the sale. >> it's also good to be back in lower manhattan. a few blocks from wall street. it really is good to be back. >> reporter: in new york, the president framed his plans for reform as wall street's patriotic duty. >> i urge you to join me, not only because it is in the interest of your industry, but also because it's in the

interest of your country. >> reporter: the mostly-friendly audience of supporters also included the ceo of goldman sachs, whose firm was just charged by the s.e.c. with a billion dollar fraud and executives of other wall street titans like bank of america and jp morgan chase. >> a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. that's what happened too often in the years leading up to this crisis. >> reporter: from the floor of the new york stock exchange, traders were watching, some expecting worse. >> at first i thought maybe he was going to bash wall street. it wasn't that. he was really very nice to wall street, actually. >> reporter: on capitol hill, democrats pushed forward setting a key procedural vote for monday even as negotiations with republicans were still under way. >> reserving the right to object and i will object. here we go again. >> we are going to move forward on this piece of legislation because the american people

demand it. >> reporter: the reform plan includes a new consumer protection agency, procedures to dissolve large firms that get into trouble, and restrictions to keep big firms from taking risks that threaten the whole financial system. the bill does not set hard limits on the size of banks which are only getting bigger. 15 years ago, the six largest banks represented 17% of the american economy, now 63%. some democrats want the bill to change that. >> on the front end, we have to make sure the banks themselves don't get too big because too big to fail is too big. >> reporter: today the president called on wall street to stop fighting reform. >> because ultimately, there is no dividing line between main street and wall street. we will rise or we will fall together as one nation. >> reporter: ultimately, democrats do feel confident they are going to get this financial regulatory reform bill through the congress. meantime, seven former and current executives from goldman sachs, including the ceo, lloyd

blankfein have been called to capitol hill to testify on tuesday. >> savannah guthrie at the white house for us tonight. thanks. the president's message to wall street is one thing, but what will this mean to the rest of the country? with us from our nbc news chicago bureau, diane swonk senior managing director and chief economist for mesereau financial, also advisor to the federal reserve. i don't want to contradict the president, but there is a dividing line between wall street and main street in terms of relevance. a speech like this, guidelines like these to people's lives. how is this going to affect america? >> well, it's the first step in a long road to rethinking how we lend and manage money in this country. it's also really important because right now financial firms don't know the rules of the game. they know they're changing, but they don't know the rules. unless they know the rules, they can't play. what that means for main street, consumers aren't getting the loans they should be getting because the big banks are playing and giving those loans.

>> let me put back the hands of the clock and ask this another way. if things like this had been in place before the troubles that swung the american economy into disaster, would it have had quite that effect? >> we would have avoided the same mistakes we made. what we are doing is correcting the mistakes we made. we can think up new mistakes to make. i am confident of the financial services industry ability to make new mistakes going forward. >> a lot of people join new you in that. diane swonk from our chicago newsroom tonight. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. we have a story from afghanistan tonight. it contains information we didn't know until now about an incident that received a lot of coverage on this broadcast about six months ago when we were last in afghanistan with our "nightly news" broadcast team. while there in october last year, taliban fighters launched a brazen attack on a u.n. guest house and an international hotel, close to the presidential palace there in kabul. it was the most serious attack

the u.n. had suffered in afghanistan. five of its staff members were killed that day, including an american who took heroic actions to save other lives. now there are new questions being raised about how that young american really died. was it intentional or was it an accidental friendly fire case? our report tonight from nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel. >> reporter: the deadly raid on the u.n. compound in kabul last october was one of the most high-profile attacks ever in afghanistan. five u.n. employees were killed. >> rounds have impacted the wall. >> reporter: brian williams was the first reporter to see what happened inside the compound. now the events of that day are being reexamined. nbc news learned both the fbi and the united nations investigated whether afghan security forces were involved in

killing a u.n. guard. an american credited with fending off the attack and saving 17 lives. a former navy sailor louis maxwell. a talented musician, father of two, dedicated to his church, maxwell left the navy to join the u.n. in 2007. when the kabul attack began, maxwell, 27 years old, jumped out of bed in civilian clothes and fired back. the afghan government says he was killed by taliban militants. but u.n. officials raised questions. >> there is concern on the part of the united nations that mr. maxwell may have been killed by friendly fire, by afghan security forces. >> reporter: concerned because an amateur video obtained by nbc news shows what happened after the attack was over. as people started to return to the streets, maxwell can be seen

beside a vehicle. as two men pass behind the vehicle, shots are heard. and maxwell falls to the ground. we asked nbc news military analyst colonel jack jacobs to review the footage. >> i looked at it very closely. i'm convinced that two afghan security soldiers ran across the roads where maxwell was and shot him. >> reporter: today the u.n. compound remains burned out and empty. louis maxwell was extremely popular among his u.n. colleagues. a senior western diplomat tells nbc news he fought heroically to defend them. the circumstances surrounding the death disturbed many u.n. officials and raised troubling questions. was there an attempt to cover it up? afghan officials vigorously deny it, suggesting militants could have been wearing afghan uniforms. >> we have accepted they were

a bomber wearing a police uniform and shooting everyone coming in front of him. perhaps he has shot the u.n. security guard. >> this is my tree dedicated to my son. >> reporter: in his native florida, maxwell's mother keep as tree decorated in his honor. a street will soon be named for her son. >> there are generations that will be living because of the act that he did. and that says a lot about his character. that he didn't think about himself, but he thought about those other people. >> reporter: senior u.n. officials tell nbc news they believe maxwell was shot dead by afghan security forces who mistook him for an attacker. richard engel, nbc news, kabul. you can read a further account of this story from our veteran foreign correspondent richard engel. it's on our website. that's nightly.msnbc.com. when our broadcast continues here on this thursday night, up close and personal with that volcano in iceland. what makes it so powerful? ful?

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starting at just $11.99, during the festival of shrimp. right now at red lobster. we are back tonight with a closer look at a nation we've all been watching closely lately because it's quite literally a hotbed of volcanic activity. tonight while flights around the world are still getting back to normal, in iceland they are worried a wind shift might shut

down their major airports. it's an active environment there because iceland sits on top of what may be the largest crack in the crust of the earth anywhere on earth. our chief science correspondent robert bazell is there and got this close-up look. >> reporter: this current eruption is one more demonstration of the earth's awesome fire power in this land of volcanos. iceland, the size of kentucky, has 35 active volcanos with an eruption on average every two or three years. it is a place where much of the surface is very close to the immense heat from the center of the planet. these steam vents are throughout the country and occur because water seeps into the earth and hits the molten rock which is right beneath the surface. iceland's earth structure comes from the same forces that produce earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanos.

the huge sections of the earth called plates that are in constant motion. this island nation straddles a plate boundary called the mid-atlantic ridge. this is actually a fault line. on this side is the north american plate. on that side is the european plate. they're moving apart at the rate of about one inch a year. that ever-expanding fissure allows the molten rock inside the earth to rise constantly. for seismologists, the challenge is enormous. >> there's lots of activity. you know, you don't have to wait around for the data. usually you have too much work, too much data to analyze. >> reporter: the volcanos produced some spectacular vistas. the thermal heat offers great opportunities for recreation, as well as warmth and electricity for 80% of the nation's houses. but it also poses a danger that

we now know can affect much of the world. robert bazell, nbc news, iceland. and we're back in a moment. so i was the guy who was never going to have the heart attack. i watched what i ate. i worked out. personally, i thought i was invincible. once it happened, i realized it's a different story. i'm on an aspirin regimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i was the guy who was doing everything right. i was wrong. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. [ male announcer ] learn more about protecting your heart at iamproheart.com. bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix.

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some great americans were honored today in a great american place, ellis island. a place where so many american stories begin. an estimated 1/3 of all the people in this country can trace their families' arrival there. among the honorees who hosted today, jersey's own bruce springsteen, whose own family history came through those doors. he brought along his mom adele, aunt dora and aunt ida. on this earth day there was this item in the news today. a way to remind us all to take a fresh look at something we look

down and see just about every day, cigarette butts. not only are they the most common form of litter, they are filled with toxins, every one of them that can leech out into the environment and make their way into drinking water supplies and pets, among other things. speaking of which, if you're a dog owner you know, there are times when they want your attention and they do not like that you're talking to other people or doing something else. it only means that you are not loving them at that given moment. well, that's pretty much what happened today with the obama's dog bo while the first lady was talking about her life and her job with some visiting students. >> the notion of being first lady of the united states, you know, there have never been anybody in my race who had been here. i know. i know. all right. you're going to have to go. you ready to go? are you ready to go?

>> no! >> the kids all got to pet bo. they were there, by the way, as part of take our daughters and sons to work day. we also learned today that daughter malia's issue is saving the world's tigers and the first lady put it gently that they talk about that issue as a family these days at least once a week. when we come back, the latest thing in earth-friendly lawn care. care. it always happens. i buy plants, i bring them home, and then...i water too little... too much... or i just forget. but look. this is doing fine. why? it's planted in miracle-gro moisture control potting mix. it holds 33% more water... than ordinary potting soil, releasing it as plants need it, not when i get around to it. and there's miracle-gro plant food mixed in. so you get miracle-gro results... i like that. [ female announcer ] new and improved miracle-gro moisture control potting mix. success starts with the soil.

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as we said earlier, this is earth day, the 40th anniversary, in fact, of what's considered the birth of the modern environmental movement. we thought it was a good night to tell the story of a very modern company with an old school lawn, and the very environmental way they've chosen to cut the grass. our chief environmental correspondent anne thompson has our report from mountain view, california. >> reporter: at google silicon valley campus, this week high-tech meets low-tech. inside, while two-legged employees work on ways to expand the world's favorite search engine, outside these four-legged temps eat their way through the day.

these goats are eating machines and mike canaday is their boss. >> i'm a goat chauffeur. my job is to take the goats the next place they have to go. that's about it. >> reporter: on this job, 260 goats replace a gas-powered landscaping crew. with a whistle canaday controls a border collie and the dog controls the goats, a quirky, greener way to clear the three-acre field that google says fits its image. >> they reduce noise pollution and eliminate mower emissions and are just fun to look at for us. >> reporter: goats go where mowers can't, up steep, rocky terrain or across wet, soggy land. these weed eaters work across the country clearing brush at an arizona waste water treatment plant, invasive plants in washington state's roadsides and riverbeds and overgrown fields at a new york city park.

they draw a crowd at the north carolina fair showing off their skills. >> would take a lot of effort off my hands. >> reporter: alex is a goat herder. >> it's not a new idea, but it's an idea coming into its own in modern times. >> reporter: in california, goats cost anywhere from $300 an acre to a couple of thousand depending on the job. will it take them a week to clear all this? it doesn't look real high? >> we're on goat time. we can't make them go any faster or slower. >> reporter: this is one time speed doesn't matter at google, as it opts for an animal foot print instead of a carbon one. anne thompson, nbc news, mountain view, california. that's our broadcast for this thursday night. thank you for being with us. i'm brian williams. hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com